Borussia Dortmund’s Niclas Fullkrug celebrates scoring in opposition to Paris St Germain within the first leg of the Champions League semifinal on Might 1, 2024
| Picture Credit score: Reuters
Niclas Füllkrug scored and Borussia Dortmund earned a 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain within the first leg of their Champions League semifinal.
Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck despatched a protracted cross excessive for Füllkrug to regulate brilliantly along with his first contact earlier than firing it previous PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma along with his subsequent within the thirty sixth minute on Wednesday.
“It isn’t the primary time that I’ve tried to stay the ball in on the close to put up this season. This time it labored out and I am even happier that it is in such an necessary recreation,” Füllkrug stated.
The win offers Dortmund a slender benefit earlier than the groups play once more within the second leg in Paris subsequent Tuesday, when the French champion might want to overturn the end result if it is going to seize Europe’s greatest prize earlier than Kylian Mbappé leaves the membership.
PSG is underneath stress to lastly win to the Champions League to justify greater than a decade of big funding from its Qatari homeowners.
Dortmund’s win ensured it certified for the match subsequent season and it offers the Bundesliga 5 groups within the expanded match. Dortmund is assured of ending at the very least fifth.
Roared on by a lot of the 81,365 followers current, together with the famed “yellow wall” behind one of many objectives, Dortmund made the busier begin and maintained its depth for the entire recreation. The house workforce ran 119.7 kilometers — nearly 10 greater than the guests.
Defender Lucas Hernández went off injured after making an attempt to cease Füllkrug from scoring. It seemed like Hernández suffered a left leg damage.
PSG pushed hardest early within the second half, when Mbappé hit the suitable put up earlier than Achraf Hakimi struck the left put up.
Gregor Kobel saved Mbappé’s subsequent effort and Dortmund survived the stress.
Füllkrug went on to overlook additional good probabilities for the German workforce, whereas Marquinhos made a vital block to disclaim Julian Brandt late on.
“It might have been good if we may have made our counterattacks depend to get a second objective on the finish,” Dortmund veteran Mats Hummels stated.
“However now we’ve got to return by means of in Paris.” The guests missed probabilities, too.
Ousmane Dembelé ought to have scored on his return to Dortmund when he blazed a shot over late, then Vitinha flashed a shot large of the left put up.
“We tried to maintain the ball from them however it’s so troublesome as a result of they’ve plenty of high quality,” PSG coach Luis Enrique stated.
“They’re an incredible workforce on the ball and off the ball. At present in that atmosphere they had been nice in each facets of the sport. I feel we had perhaps an absence of depth within the first half, however within the second half we created clear, clear probabilities. However we could not rating.”
Dortmund coach Edin Terzic solely made his first substitution within the 83rd, when he despatched on veteran Marco Reus for the exhausted Karim Adeyemi.
The winner of the two-leg tie will play both Actual Madrid or Bayern Munich within the last in London on June 1. The previous rivals drew 2-2 of their semifinal first leg in Munich on Tuesday.